The present invention generally relates to mechanisms which reduce the amount of water required for the operation of toilets and, more particularly, to dual flush mechanisms for use in conventional toilet tank designs.
The standard toilet is designed to dispose of waste through the use of water, which is held in a tank and released at the proper time by the user. Although such toilets are effective, inexpensive, and in widespread use, they consume excessive amounts of water, since the flush cycle is intended to dispose of solid waste, despite the fact that 60% to 80% of flushes are for liquid waste, which can be removed with a fraction of the water used for a normal flush.
In most parts of the world, water availability is limited, and, with increasing population, its conservation is becoming a critical issue. The quantity of water that can potentially be conserved by using this flush limiting mechanism is of major significance in many areas.
Many attempts have been made to develop devices to reduce the amount of water required to flush a toilet and a number of these have been aimed at giving the user a choice between a limited flush and a full flush. To date, despite a growing need to conserve water, such devices have not found general acceptance. The reasons for this are varied, but in most cases the devices offered have been complex, unreliable, difficult to install, difficult to use, costly, or a combination of these shortcomings.
The present invention overcomes these problems through the use of a simple, reliable mechanism which can be added to a conventional toilet flush mechanism, at a relatively low cost. It gives the user the option of a water-saving limited flush or a full flush by simply changing the amount of time the flush handle is held down when a flush is initiated. It also allows the user to easily set the amount of water used for a limited flush, allowing operation to be optimized for a particular installation.